Local Embeddedness and Collaborative Arrangements: Influence of Global Competition on Taiwanese Rice Industry

• Main Authors: I Han, 韓宜
• Other Authors: Cheng-Min Chuang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/07877132766354205757

博士 === 臺灣大學 === 國際企業學研究所 === 98 === This dissertation studies how the rice farmers choose the collaborative modes with the rice processors in Taiwan to cope with the increasing global competition in the post-WTO regime, and examines the determinants and performance implications associated with such a strategic choice. In addition to the transaction cost determinants documented in literature, local embeddedness has been identified in this dissertation as another series of environmental factors influencing the choice of collaborative modes in the rice industry. We first investigate the sources and contents of local embeddedness and then propose a research framework combining both the economic environmental factors and local embeddedness factors to explain why and how the choice of mode is made. Refutable hypotheses are further developed and tested on 420 samples of rice farmers from major rice-producing regions in Taiwan. Empirical findings generally validate the importance of local embeddedness as major determinants which can be incorporated with transaction cost variables into a more comprehensive model to explain the rationale of mode choice, and the mode choice based upon such a comprehensive model will lead to a better performance than otherwise.